Family's anger as girl is spared custody for school razor attack

A girl who slashed a classmate's face with a razor blade has avoided a custodial sentence after being cleared of wounding with intent, but convicted of unlawful wounding.

Yesterday the girl, who cannot be named, received a two-year supervision order for attacking Shanni Naylor during an English lesson at Myrtle Springs secondary school in Sheffield last October. Both girls were 12 at the time.

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Alan Goldsack QC, said: "You have taken a razor blade with you into school, walked up to another girl in your class and, under the nose of your teacher, slashed that girl three times in the face with that razor. Serious wounds were inflicted on the face of that girl.

"If you were older, a custodial sentence for what you did would be an appropriate sentence even with the background described and without the intent to cause really serious harm."

Judge Goldsack added that current legislation did not give him the power to hand down a custodial sentence. After the trial, the Naylor family expressed their disappointment that the jury had cleared the girl of the more serious charge and their solicitor said they had already started civil proceedings against the school, alleging breach of its duty of care towards their daughter.

Garry Dickson said Shanni was upset by the attack and its impact on her life. Outside court he said: "On the day in question she went into school and came out of that lesson with 30 to 40 stitches and a horrific face wound. She's a 13-year-old child. She's got very serious scarring and there's nothing plastic surgeons can do to change that."

During the three-day trial, jurors heard that Shanni assaulted the girl the day before the classroom attack, punching her and banging her head against a wall as more than 100 pupils looked on. Nobody came to the girl's aid.

The jury was told that the defendant was the only Somali girl in her year and had few friends. She lived in Somalia for the first 10 years of her life, without any formal education, and was orphaned when she was young.

Her isolation at school led to bullying - some of it racially motivated - at the hands of her peers. Teachers were aware of this problem and they also knew the girl had learning difficulties.

The judge heard evidence from two psychologists and two psychiatrists, with all four saying she was not fit to plead due to her extremely low intelligence and difficult background. One psychologist put her IQ at 45.

A psychologist told the court she was likely to have been heavily influenced by a Somali custom in which women routinely settled disputes by inflicting minor scratches on each other's faces.

In her defence she said she did not plan to attack Shanni, but had found the blade and only wanted to scare her with it.